


come and play in domestic bliss with me

by shedb



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: M/M, One Shot, Other, literally just nb byleth and jeritza in a house together with their 50 cats, mercedes visits. they live in a cottage inbetween jobs., real shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-01
Updated: 2020-04-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:01:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23423623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shedb/pseuds/shedb
Summary: Mercedes comes to visit her little brother and the professor in their cottage.
Relationships: Jeritza von Hrym & Mercedes von Martritz, Jeritza von Hrym & My Unit | Byleth, Jeritza von Hrym/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 6
Kudos: 62





	come and play in domestic bliss with me

**Author's Note:**

> no beta i just love byleth/jeritza and am a little obsessed with it.  
> sorry i write jeritzas dialogue like that im j trying 2 emulate his fucking weird way of speaking

Byleth has been out since early afternoon, fishing and tending to their garden. Their hands are soft from the soil and streaked brown, arms and back comfortably-uncomfortably sore from hefting around their bag of bait fishing gear and digging out weeds.

They don't really know what time it is. They hope they haven't missed Mercedes' bi-monthly visit to their cottage.

There is a pegasus outside that Byleth doesn't recognize when they finally arrive at the cottage, but it has flowers braided into its mane and a hand-embroidered pouch attached to its saddle so Byleth feels it is safe to assume it is Mercedes'.

Through the lace curtains and open windows, Byleth can see they are right.

“What a sweet kitten,” Mercedes voice, soft and gentle, goes impossibly softer and gentler as she scratches his tummy. “Yes, what a sweet kitten you are! What's his name?”

“Byleth.” Byleth answers, closing the door behind them. Neither of them startle, no doubt they'd heard them approaching from outside the cottage.

Mercedes laughs. “Hello, Professor! Did you name him after yourself?” She turns her attention back to the kitten who flips over and meows very loudly at her. "It must be because of your big blue eyes.”

“I…..did,” Jeritza says.

“Mm…Jeritza names our cats.” Byleth explains, walking over to their larder. The fish are placed neatly inside of an iron box with a freezing spell on them. When they come out, Mercedes is covering her mouth, eyebrows knitted in concern though her shoulders shake with laughter.

“And this one too?” She points to another one of their cats, a fluffy grey tom sleeping next to the fireplace. 

“Byleth...” Jeritza replies, looking flustered when Mercedes nearly doubles over. “It is...I like the name.”

“How do they tell the difference?” Mercedes cries, wiping a tear from her eye.

“I….” Jeritza looks at the floor. “The right one…will know when I am calling…for them...like this…” and he looks at their kitten again, calling out gently, “Byleth, come here.”

Byleth, resisting the urge to walk over and ruin this instead watches as their kitten stops stalking another one of their cat's tails and ambles over to Jeritza, rubbing its head on his leg. It makes their mouth twitch up into an almost smile when they watch Jeritza gingerly pick up the kitten, scratching under his chin with one finger, gentle and careful.

Mercedes makes a sweet, high-pitched cooing noise, and when they look over they find that she’s watching them watch Jeritza, instead of the kitten. When she notices they’ve caught her staring, she laughs self consciously and waves her hand glibly at them.

“Sorry- the way you look at Emile is just so- sweet, Professor!“ she sighs wistfully, as Jeritza starts to colour and twitchily puts the kitten back down, who scratches his ankle before running away. "Your gaze is so...it's just very romantic, that's all."

Byleth, who has spent the last few months being told numerous times by the townspeople that their face is emotionless and menacing, finds themself feeling embarrassingly pleased to hear from a third party that for once that it does look like they love their husband. 

"...Please..." Jeritza sounds embarrassed, and Mercedes laughs. 

"When did you arrive?" Byleth asks to change the subject. "I thought you said 5."

"I did! I hoped to meet you here as well Professor, I hadn't realized you would be out all day fishing." Mercedes replies and then takes a look at the clock on their wall, then Jeritza, who has begun to look slightly antsy. 

"I think I'd better be on my way now too." She says, not unkindly. "Emile, thank you for having me over." 

She reaches out her hand towards him, and when he stares at it for too long, Byleth watches as she rescinds it and smiles at him instead. 

Before they had arrived at Garreg Mach, they had scarcely met another person their age, let alone one that they could be friends or spent long amounts of time with. The concept of _siblings_ was even more far-fetched to them. To know another person in only the way someone who had grown together under the same household would, to love in a familial way similar but different to how Jeralt loved them... these were things Byleth still to this day found they didn't truly understand.

Watching the small ways that Mercedes amends her body language to be open towards Jeritza, the ways she observes, reads, and understands his body language to her... they both know that he has changed from the small boy she once knew, almost completely. Byleth knows that Jeritza, afraid of making his sister hate and fear him, hasn't told Mercedes everything about himself either.

And yet, somehow she still knows to be more careful than most people, how far to push and when to stop. What she can say to Jeritza that nobody else can say. Small things Jeritza does when he's nervous that he thinks nobody can pick up on, but she can. Byleth looks on silently as Mercedes bids her brother farewell, then turns to the cats and says goodbye to all six Byleths, and four others. 

"Professor, thank you for having me over!" She says and comes to kiss them on the cheek. Byleth goes _oof_ quietly as she leans over to give them a big hug, and mumbles " _Please call me Byleth"_ and " _Come again soon_ " into her shoulder.

And then Mercedes is gone. The door shuts, and it is just Byleth and Jeritza and their many many cats once more.

Byleth walks over to Jeritza, slides their hand into the hair at his scalp and gently pulls it through until they can play with the ends of it. Jeritza pushes his head slowly into their palm, as the softest of exhales fall from his mouth.

"Good?" Byleth asks gently, and Jeritza turns his face slowly, to kiss their palm. It sends little butterflies through their hand up their arm and into their brain.

"Okay," Jeritza replies, and they spend a moment longer like that before Jeritza pushes their hand away and stands up. "I'll be... outside for a bit."

"Okay." Byleth echoes, and checks the clock and finds its almost time to start making dinner. "Did you marinate the lamb how I told you to?"

"Yes." Jeritza's says, and the door shuts. In the kitchen, thick cuts of lamb are sitting in a bowl that Byleth finds _has_ been mixed properly when he pulls the lid off the bowl, good job Jeritza. 

Garlic and mint fills their nostrils as they start the fire and place a large skillet over their metal setup. After washing their hands quickly, they retrieve the lard from the container near the spice rack, rubbing it into the skillet carefully. The air starts getting uncomfortably thick after a few minutes of waiting for the skillet to warm up, so they open one of the windows. The sound of insects doing insect things in the night creeps through the window as they hold their hand over the skillet to determine the heat.

It's good enough, and so in goes the lamb cuts alongside the marinade into the skillet. The sizzling and ensuing aroma is really really very quite good, Byleth thinks. They take one of their wooden spoons and push the lamb around a little to make sure it doesn't stick, then cover the skillet with a lid and goes to make sure they have enough bread leftover to eat alongside the lamb.

The rice that they're growing in their garden (magically) outside has yet to produce any yield, but Byleth refuses to give up. It's not that they hate bread, but it's just that they prefer rice and would like to have it grown fresh at home without having to have their home be next to a large amount of paddy field.

There is bread in the pantry, a misshapen sourdough loaf that Jertiza made yesterday. Byleth takes it outside and pulls out a small skillet to toast the bread in, slicing the toast thickly and placing it in the skillet aside for later.

They remove the lid and using two wooden spoons like tongs, flip the lamb chops upside down, leaving them uncovered this time.

They hear the door creak open, and they creep out of the kitchen to see Jeritza glide past thoughtlessly, towards their bedroom.

Byleth goes to close the door, then follows him. A cat tries to follow them into the room, but they successfully shoo it out. 

Jeritza lays on the bed. His hair spills onto the sheets, half out of its usual ponytail. His pose is relaxed, but his eyes staring into the wall look manic. He gets like this sometimes if they've been cooped up together with nothing to do for too long, and after a visit from Mercedes.

They watch quietly until Jeritza's eyes flicker to them and he says "Stop...watching me from over there," at which point they drift over to him.

"Dinner will be ready soon," Byleth murmurs as they sit down next to him. "What did you do outside?"

"I went into the forest...started cutting down firewood," Jeritza responds, his voice takes on a more dream-like tone as he recounts. "I was hoping...bandits, or anything... but there was nobody there. This place...is too remote...for anyone to stumble upon."

"That was kind of the point of us living here," Byleth says. "Do you want to spread rumours that rich merchants live out here? That might attract a few people." They draw a slow loop on their pant leg. "We'll be gone again before we know it anyways. There's always work to be done."

"Yes." Jeritza agrees but doesn't move from his position on the bed. "It's just that, moments like this...this... _in-between_ life..." he makes a frustrated, hateful noise, and finally closes his eyes for a moment.

Byleth finds that almost like always, they understand just enough of Jeritza's words to sympathize.

They press a hand to his side and squeeze somewhat awkwardly, then get up to come around and kiss him softly once somewhere on the head.

"Come to the kitchen in ten minutes, I'll leave the food on the stove for you," Byleth tells him, and Jeritza only looks at them a little bit overwhelmingly longingly when they go back to the kitchen. 

The cats scream at them as they plate their cat food and still scream even as they eat. They toast their bread, plate their food, and then eat it quietly. One of the Byleth's walk over to them rubs her head on their legs and meows plaintively until they move back from the dining table so she can jump up onto their lap to sit and purr.

Byleth likes to think they are more attuned to an 'average' life than Jeritza, but they feel it too inside of them. The body of a mercenary, raised from birth, un-attuned to long periods of sitting and relaxing and waiting and nothing.

Jeritza never comes to dinner, so they wash up their dishes and put out the fire, covering the food. They can eat it tomorrow.

They shower, washing dried sweat and dirt off their body, scrub until their skin feels tender and the humidity in the room is making their head feel light. Afterwards, they towel themselves dry and slip into one of the soft and fluffy robes either Lorenz or Ferdinand sent them, and quietly enter their bedroom.

Jeritza startles awake, staring at them as they enter.

"I want to big spoon." Byleth mumbles and Jeritza rolls to the side obligingly. 


End file.
